hello, this is my first post, but i've been looking at pocketship for almost two years now.
i live in seattle so i'm looking at building a small boat to handle lake washington, as well as some trips on puget sound. me and my girl have a six year old son and we'd like something we could do an overnight trip in, maybe stretching it out to a weekend, or a day trip when my parents visit.
i got to sit in one and take a look at it when CLC brought out pocketship #1 for the port townsend wooden boat festival last year and really like the boat.
it'll be my first boat owned as well as first boat built.
being in seattle, and having only ever sailed a small sunfish on a lake in northern wisconsin, i'd ideally want to have some auxilary power so i could go upstream thru the ballard locks if i decide to keep it in the water, instead of trailering it, as well as being able to have some power to move around in tight quarters.
however, tacking on a trolling motor or outboard o nthe back seems to ruin a bit of the simplicity and add to the complexity and just overall seems like an awkward way to go.
has anyone else contemplated some sort of electric pod drive kinda setup? permanently mounted to the bottom of the boat, with a 12v or 24v electrical system to power it? possibly a pair of pods, each about the same size as the bottom of a trolling motor, one on each side of the keel? substitute some of the moveable ballast for batteries?
i'm thinking this could give adequite manuvering power, and using a renerative system charge the batteries while under sail. most pod systems i'm seeign are WAY overpowered for a boat this size and silly expensive but ikeep being drawn back to these:
http://www.minnkotamotors.com/products/ ... water.aspx
they state right off the bat that they aren't for use on sailboats... but i've never been afraid of repurpousing things before. maybe coupled with a different motor controller they might do nicely.
anyone else have any thoughts? am i way off base here?